


Invitation

by Wallwalker



Category: Star Ocean: The Second Story
Genre: Community: 5trueloves, Established Relationship, F/M, Fluff, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-11-20
Updated: 2009-11-20
Packaged: 2017-10-03 10:34:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 924
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17077
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wallwalker/pseuds/Wallwalker
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rena tries to understand some of the things that Noel does.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Invitation

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the [Five True Loves](http://community.livejournal.com/5trueloves) community at LiveJournal. (Prompt: Shower.)

Arlia was having an unusually rainy spring that year.

Noel was fond of rain, liked to stand in the forest when it was raining and just listen to the sound of the water trickling down the leaves. It never seemed to bother him, never seemed to chill him. And he never seemed to remember to ask Rena if she wanted to come along on his morning walks; he'd get up early in the morning and go by himself, and when Rena asked him why he hadn't asked her to come he'd say that she'd looked so peaceful, he hadn't wanted to wake her.

"Well," she'd say, "next time you should wake me. I'd like to be out here with you." And he'd always smile and agree... only to forget again next time.

In a fit of pique one day, she'd done something that she normally would have never done; she'd gone into his room, looked under his bed and pulled out a box that he kept there. Then she started rifling through it, hoping to find something - anything - that might help her understand what he was thinking when he went off on his own. Maybe he kept a diary or something, she figured - not that she usually condoned reading people's diaries, of course, but she was desperate, and for some reason just asking him was turning out to be too hard.

She didn't find much there, though. Pressed flowers, old zoology books... she did find a bunch of papers, though, and leafed through it quickly. Most of them were fairly standard things, sketches and notes about animals in the Shingo Forest and all of the other places in Expel that they'd visited. But in the margins and on the backs of sheets she saw a few things that weren't animals. She found pictures of herself - quite clearly drawn from memory, as the details were subtly wrong and a few things were added in - standing in peaceful forest glades and smiling in the gentle spring rain, with flowers in her hair and usually a few cuddly animals by her side.

She was determined not to tell him that she'd looked, but she kept what she'd seen in mind, remembering in particular the pictures. Why was he drawing pictures of her if he wanted to see her in the forest? Why not invite her to come with him and draw from life, not just from memory?

There was only one way to find out.

She woke up fairly early in the mornings, and usually she didn't stay awake; she went back to sleep. But she forced herself to get up just long enough to walk to Noel's room, to see if he was still there. If he was, she went back to bed... and he was, most of the time.

Then, about a week after she'd read his notes, she stumbled into his room and found that he wasn't there. She could hear the pattering of raindrops on the roof, another warm spring rain, and right away she knew where she would find him.

She pulled on some hiking clothes and went out into the rain; she didn't take an umbrella, just threw her arms above her head and ran though the town. No one was out and about that early in the morning, but she didn't really think that they'd say anything if they did see her; Noel had been there for months, and they knew his habits well enough. They'd just assume that she was picking up his habits, as most lovers seemed to do.

Just as she'd expected, she found him in the forest, sitting under a tree and just watching the rain. He heard her as she arrived; she never had been able to sneak up on him, he always seemed to hear - and looked up at her as she approached and sat down beside him. There was guilt plain on his face, and Rena thought that it wouldn't do, wouldn't do at all. She didn't want him to feel guilty. She just wanted him to understand.

For a while they didn't say anything, just sat there with Rena's head on his shoulder. Then, finally, Rena cleared her throat. "It's nice out here," she said. "For a rainy day, I mean."

"I... yeah." Noel looked embarrassed. "It is pretty nice."

"How long have you been out here?"

"I don't know, maybe... maybe half an hour. Not that long," he said quickly.

"I looked in on you when I woke up," she said. "You weren't there, so I decided to find you." She looked up at him. "Why don't you ask me to come along, Noel? There must be a reason, so what is it?"

"Well, it's just...." He shook his head, clearly at a loss. "Most people think it's weird, you know? Inviting them to go out in the rain, get wet, ruin their nice clothes... it doesn't go over well. I guess I just got used to not inviting people."

"Noel, you don't have to invite me," she said. "I'm asking."

Noel looked at her, and then smiled and hugged her and didn't say anything else.

 

He woke her up early the next morning. "Hurry, Rena, get dressed and come outside with me," he said. "It's raining."

She didn't think she'd ever been so happy to be woken up at dawn in her life. It was a small start, but a good one, and she went outside with him in the rain, holding his hand as they splashed through the puddles.


End file.
